kindergarten graduation

by @according2kelly on June 17, 2011

dear gavin,

congratulations! as of this week you are officially a kindergarten graduate – a concept i’m still trying to wrap my brain around. it seems like just yesterday i was saying goodbye to you on your first day of preschool. & it’s nearly impossible for me to fathom the fact that it’s been six years since you were a newborn. yet, here you are – practically grown up!

someone much smarter than i, a mr. robert fulghum, once proclaimed that “most of what i really need to know, about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, i learned in kindergarten.” & i have to say, i most definitely agree…

“share everything. play fair. don’t hit people. put things back where you found them. clean up your own mess. don’t take things that aren’t yours. say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody. wash your hands before you eat. flush. warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some. take a nap every afternoon. when you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together. be aware of wonder. remember the little seed in the styrofoam cup: the roots go down & the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that. goldfish & hamsters & white mice and even the little seed in the styrofoam cup – they all die. so do we. and then, remember the dick-and-jane books, and the first word you learned – the biggest word of all – LOOK.

everything you need to know is in there somewhere. the golden rule & love & basic sanitation. ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

take any of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or your government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm.

think what a better world it would be if all – the whole world – had cookies and milk about three o’clock every afternoon & then lay down with
our blankies for a nap. or if all governments had a basic policy to always put thing back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.

and it is still true, no matter how old you are – when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands & stick together.”

everyone has told me “they grow up so fast.” but it’s the truth. but especially this past year – i have watched you grow, learn & change, right before my very eyes. you’ve learned your a,b,c’s & 1, 2, 3’s. you can write simple sentences & even read. although, at the “core” you’re still the same, sweet little boy i brought home in my arms six years ago. green is currently your favorite color. legos & video games are your newest passion, although riding your bike is your favorite way to spend the afternoon. & somehow you manage to charm everyone you meet. parents & teachers alike have told me that you are “secretly” their favorite.